Aircraft brake assemblies require regular repair, servicing, or refurbishing during the life of the brake assembly. Therefore, the brake assemblies are regularly removed from the aircraft, transported to a service location, then shipped back to a location for installation on an aircraft.
The aircraft brake assemblies include a stack of rotor and stator disks that are often constructed from carbon, a high temperature-resistent material. However, carbon is also a brittle material, and therefore easily damaged from impact or shock. As a result, extra care must be taken in the handling of the brake assemblies to avoid any damaging impact to the brake disks. The problem of the brittle carbon disks is exacerbated by the high cost of carbon material, for example, each stack of carbon disks used in an aircraft brake assembly may cost between $20,000 to $30,000.
The brittleness of the carbon disks requires specially designed containers to protect the disks from damage during shipping. Attempts to solve this problem have resulted in several aircraft brake shipping container designs. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,790,430 issued to W. A. Thomas on Dec. 13, 1988 discloses a resilient, lightweight aircraft brake assembly shipping container comprised of a cylindrical tube and base member with a removable top closure. In order to ship the brake assembly in the container, the top closure is removed, the aircraft brake assembly is inserted into the tube, and the top closure is replaced. The container thus provides an inexpensive, safe container for shipping the brake assemblies.
Another type of container for hollow cylindrical parts is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,913,735 issued to D. R. Durbin on Jun. 22, 1973. The container is comprised of a base and a hollow cover, with a connecting bolt securing the base and cover together. The container also includes elements for positioning and bearing against the hollow cylindrical parts inside the container.
Although these container designs may provide improved shipping of the brake assemblies, a problem still exists in the difficulty of removing and replacing the brake assemblies in the container, because the brake assembly must be slid into the container. Moreover, the excessive handling of the disks that is required to remove and replace the brake assemblies creates an additional problem. For example, in order to install the disks on the aircraft, the used brake assembly is first removed and placed in a remote location. The new brake assembly is then removed from the container and typically placed on a workbench in order to prepare the brake assembly for installation. The brake assembly is then mounted on the aircraft. The used brake assembly is then retrieved from the remote location and packed in a container for shipping to a repair site. The extensive maneuvering of the brake assemblies therefore increases the probability that the carbon disks will be dropped, broken, or damaged. Moreover, after the brake assemblies are removed from the shipping container, the assemblies are often not secured to a stable object as they are moved from location to location, thereby increasing the likelihood of damage to the carbon disks. Therefore, a need exists for an improved aircraft brake assembly shipping container that protects the carbon disks during shipping and minimizes the necessary handling of the brake assemblies during installation to and removal from the aircraft.
Accordingly, the principal object of this invention is to protect the carbon disks during shipping.
Another object of the invention is to increase the convenience and minimize handling of the aircraft brake assemblies during replacement of the aircraft brake assemblies.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an aircraft brake assembly shipping container that is stackable.
A still further object of the invention is to provide a container for shipping aircraft brake assemblies that is both lightweight and impact-resistant.
These and other objects of the present invention will now become apparent from a review of the drawings and the following description of the preferred embodiments.